New Year, New You

I’m transforming you from worm to harrow, from insect to iron.

Isaiah 41:15

It’s official- you made it through 2020. We’re in a new year full of hope and hesitant excitement. I think we are all holding our breath to see if this year is going to be better than the former.

Say what you will about 2020, but for me, it was far better than my 2019. My daughter was born in 2019- which is awesome. She’s the best thing ever. But she had some awful health issues and we spent the next eight months monitoring and medicating her round the clock. It was a time of genuine, raw, and real broken-hearted faith in God. Christmas of 2019 was rough too. Braven had a stomach bug, which she then gave to all of us. And my husband’s precious grandmother went to be with Jesus on Christmas Eve. It was a rough end to a rough year.

But we made it. We walked through fire and God was faithful.

Then 2020 hit. The world seemed to blow up overnight. And while it was all daunting- it wasn’t as bad as 2019. And in the strangest way, I was grateful for my horrible year. Because it gave me a rare gift.

The gift of new perspective.

This is what I believe 2020 has given us all. We all walked through fire and we are still standing. We have been gifted with strength that we didn’t have before. A new resilience.

I rearranged my priorities this year. I realized home is the people you’re with, not the place. I learned the importance of time together. I saw the necessity for the promises of God unlike I’d seen before. I watched my perspective of what’s important and worth my time dramatically change for the better.

Hard things are no fun, but they force you to grow in areas you have previously refused to. That’s a blessing- the gift of growth.

It may have been hard, but I’ve been through harder. And on this side of “harder,” I am stronger.

“Do you feel like a lowly worm, Jacob? Don’t be afraid. Feel like a fragile insect, Israel? I’ll help you. I, God, want to reassure you. The God who buys you back, The Holy of Israel. I’m transforming you from worm to harrow, from insect to iron. As a sharp-toothed harrow you’ll smooth out the mountains, turn those tough old hills into loamy soil.” Isaiah 41:14-15

Insect to iron.

The “New Year, New You” saying is more cliché than the word cliché, but in this case it is really true. We all walk into 2021 a little more iron and a little less insect. We look at problems, adversity, and pain, with more security in our Creator and less faith in our fear.

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” Isaiah 43:18-19(NIV)

God is doing a new thing. We are being renewed day by day. His goodness and mercy are fresh and available every morning. We step into the new. We acknowledge His presence. We allow Him to transform us. Because if God is doing a new thing, that means He’s going to require some newness from us, too.

Because He doesn’t put new wine in old wine skin.

“Neither is new wine put into old wineskins. If it is, the skins burst and the wine is spilled and the skins are destroyed. But new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.” Matthew 9:17(ESV)

This newness that is required of you is so that you may be preserved in what God is doing. This is for your good. Give God permission to renew you this year, this week, this day.

Lord,

Your Kingdom come.

Your will be done.

On Earth, as it is in Heaven.

Be Blessed!